Saturday, November 21, 2015

Command Ops 2: The Fleeting Moment

This blog entry contains commentary from the Overloon scenario in the recently released Westwall module forCommand Ops 2. Spoilers are a possibility ...

Plenty of terrain and objectives to cover. I'm in command of the US 7th US Armored Division.

This is no country for tanks. We need more infantry. We don't have enough of either.

In real life, this was a battle that left the 7th AD so badly mauled that it had to be put offline for quite a while. In this scenario, I planned to hug the west bank of the Maas, and after hopefully clearing it, re-orient towards Overloon and then move to Venraij (not shown here). The events took me into a slightly different direction.

By the evening of D2, I found myself pushing detachments from Combat Command B towards the depth of enemy territory, right into the southmost objective (Veinraij).

What happened? The clearing of the west bank of the Maas was slow but very productive in terms of moving German units out of the way. Just by chance, I sent a reconnaissance company into Veirlingsbeek and found the town held by just a few German anti-tank guns. The reconnaissance company gains were not only the town itself but also a clear route towards the south and a crossing across the Veirlignsbeek creek.

Without delay, I ordered TF Brown (BRWN counter and its subordinates linked with green lines) to expand our grasp of Veirlignsbeek. This screenshot taken way after the town was secured.

Moving the rest of Combat Command A through Veirlignsbeek and towards Veinraij was not easy. But at this point of the battle I already had enough combat power at Veinraij to secure the objective.

Overloon, the objective north of Veinraij was impossible to approach. The reconnaissance by the 87th Cavalry Squadron revealed no less than 15 German Panther tanks in a defensive stance in and around the town.

The final debrief, with our proud hold of objective Veinraij in the background.

A though scenario that I enjoyed very much. I almost can picture myself in a jeep at Veirlignsbeek, pointing any single US unit arriving towards the south.